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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 (2013) 360 – 365

World Conference on Psychology and Sociology 2012

The Understanding of Aggression Motivation and the Psychotherapy Process Juliana Lozovska a*, Gra a

a

Department of Clinical and Organization Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Universiteto str.9/1, Lithuania

Abstract Despite widely acknowledged problems of aggression, presumptions on its constructive and destructive possibilities, aggression still remains scarcely explored phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to propose closer look at the subjective motivation of aggression in women. The study consisted of two stages and embraced 24 participants. As the analysis of semistructured interviews and projective material show, female aggression is often linked with the frustration of needs, regulation of relationship, defense and expansion of personal boundaries and self-image. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Keywords: Aggression, Aggression Motivation, Psychotherapy Process;

1. Introduction For a long time, women and aggression were treated as totally incompatible phenomena. Up to the end of the 20th century, the prevailing biological, genetic approaches explained aggression as a component of masculinity so alien to normal women. Manifestations of female aggression were ignored or perceived as a deviation (Blanchette, Brown, 2006; Lloyd, 1995; Naffine, 1987). These tendencies of pathologizing female aggression, the lack of objectivity are obvious not only in theoretical presumptions, but also in empirical researches: for a Contemporary theories are more inclined to recognize the importance of social factors in the development of gender socialization (Campbell, 1993; Jack, 1999; Naffine, 1987). In the process of socialization, women usually have not possibilities enough to experiment with their aggression, to look for the proper ways to express their anger. In other words, they did not master the use of this important tool which allows delineating or broadening the personal borders, enables self-assertion and development. As sparse researches in this field show, women encounter serious difficulties when trying to use their aggression constructively. Very often, aggression is experienced by them as intimidating, bordering with the fear of madness, strong feelings of guilt (Jack, 1999).

* Corresponding author: Juliana Lozovska. Tel.: +370 52667605 E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria, South Africa. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.275

Juliana Lozovska and Gražina Gudaitė / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 (2013) 360 – 365

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Aggression is manifested as a reaction to the frustration of needs, danger to borders; it is rarely used constructively and creatively for self-assertion, development, expanding the territory. Finally, when speaking about the expression of female aggression, aggression itself often remains untouched, masked or directed towards the self, or manifests itself as physical or psychic symptoms (Austin, 2005). In the last decades the importance of research of female aggression is emphasized. Nevertheless, considering the relationship between aggression and physical and psychic health, the constructive and destructive possibilities of aggression, the need of the further studies of aggression is essential. This paper is intended to touch upon one important aspect the subjective motivation of aggression. 2. Motivation of female aggression and its research Traditionally, in classical psychoanalysis, aggression was linked with the motive to hurt, destroy (Rizzuto, Meissner, & Buie, 2004). This narrow understanding of the motivation of aggression did not seem adequate to some scientists. Therefore theories linking aggression with the frustration of needs, self-defense, striving to grow, to overcome or eliminate obstacles, to assert oneself were born (Austin, 2005; Kast, 2003). At the first glance we can see the versatility of the motives, but when trying to grasp the entire picture, we can notice that the motivation of aggression is closely linked with human motivation in general. To be more precise, we can use here the hierarchy of needs, proposed by A.H. Maslow (1987). Aggression can be triggered by the frustration of physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem or self-confidence needs. Depending on the situation, aggression can motivate to defend oneself and push towards the fulfillment of deficiency needs. Furthermore, aggression can be triggered not just by the frustration of basic needs, but also be a signal or impulse pushing towards growth or self-actualization. V. Kast (2011), speaking about aggression, also mentions two important motives which mirror different dynamics in the sense of personality growth she links aggression with self-preservation (as a reaction to the frustration of needs, border violations) and development (motive to remove obstacles met in the development). Finally, we can treat aggression not just from such an individualistic point of view as a tool of self-preservation or growth, but also to see it as an intermediary in interpersonal relationship, serving the regulatory function and adjusting the distance, closeness, and separateness. As the sparse studies on the topic show, women link their aggression with different motives: the defense of their territory, self-preservation, self-assertion, reaction to limitations (Jack, 1999). However, despite the importance of the issue on the both individual and societal level, in-depth studies of aggression are quite rare. This investigation was performed to spotlight the question of female aggression and to reveal the subjective the motivation of aggression and to listen to the personal stories of extremely aggressive women. On the other hand, with the purpose to grasp a wider picture, we spoke with the so-called normal women in the context of psychotherapy relationships. Constructing the research in this way, we were striving to grasp the different motives of aggression. Such an approach rests on the idea that aggression and its motivation in aggressive and normal women do not differ qualitatively but lay on the same continuum (Campbell, 1993; Wesely, 2006). 3. Methodology 3.1. Participants The study was consisted of two stages and embraced 24 participants. In the first, quantitative stage, 20 women (aged 20 50) serving their sentence in jail took part. In the second, qualitative stage of the study, four female clients (29 35 years) who had finished their long-term psychotherapy participated.

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3.2. Methods In the first stage, in a semi-structured interview, questions about different aspects of life, childhood experiences, interpersonal relationship, the experience, motivation, and manifestation of aggression were asked. In order to grasp not just the conscious understanding of the women, projective methods HTP and the picture association test (Chersonskij, 2003) were used. This allowed raising assumptions about the emotional qualities of the women. In the second part, a semi-structured interview allowed to reveal wider motives of aggression in psychotherapeutic relationships. Data were analyzed using the principles of thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 2009). 4. Results 4.1. Aggression and its motives The greater part of participants (66%) had survived physical or psychological violence; their emotional, psychological and sometimes physiological needs were ignored. Some of the participants spoke about very strong feelings of anger, hatred towards their fathers. Usually they had no possibility to express these feelings. Often aggression, anger is closely perplexed with the feelings of helplessness, passivity. Living in such conditions, most of the women were unable to follow the proper ways of aggression control, to experiment with various modes of expressing anger. The respondents were prone to act out their aggressive impulses and can be characterized as having a weak emotional control. The greater part of participants (66%) usually identified themselves with the position of aggressor in relationships, acknowledged their strong feelings of anger and expressed them directly in their behaviour toward the others. As their stories show, the motives of their aggression are usually linked with the frustration of their physiological and safety needs, danger to them or their children. The rest part of the participants (34 %) more often identifies themselves with the position of a victim: they rarely experience anger, emphasize the feelings of anxiety, helplessness. Aggression is more often directed inside in the form of self-mutilation or using drugs. We can also identify the tendency to project aggression to others as others are aggressive towards them. We can see from data obtained by interviews and projective methods that these aggressive women cannot be characterized by a high inner aggressiveness. Their drawings do not reveal such typical signs of a high inner aggressiveness as aggressive figures, certain details and graphic characteristics usually found in the population of aggressive men (Vass, 2003). Rather, their stories and the quality of drawings allow us to hypothesize such strong feelings as helplessness, anxiety, insecurity, repressed anger, which are often linked with early relationships with the father 2010). These painful emotions often emerge in an extremely traumatizing life context. Actually, aggression can be closely related to these painful emotions, physical and psychological violence and long-lasting traumatization and serve as a defensive function. 4.2. Motivation of aggression and the psychotherapy process These findings, obtained from extremely aggressive women in the context of a prison, stimulated the further who had been dealing with aggression in psychotherapy. As their stories show, very often aggression in psychotherapy is manifested in relationship with the psychotherapist. Aggressive impulses are explained as a defensive reaction to a danger to the self-image, personal boundaries and space, unmet expectations.


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4.2.1. Aggression as a defensive reaction to the threat to self-image Participants mention their aggressive reactions and impulses caused by different situations when they felt danger to their self-image or to the image of others. Participants talk about anger caused interpretations, critique towards them or their relatives. We can illustrate this by quoting participant L.: very angry when my therapist was speaking deprecatingly about my parents. I thought how she dared to do that. I think I was not prepared for that. As I see now, it was my defensive reaction. At the moment, it was too hard to understand and digest it. At the beginning, I felt an impulse to deny what was said, that she was blundering out. But these words did not disappear. They were in my head. And at some moment I allowed them to enter me. And story. Thus, we can treat this anger as having a defensive function and protecting the client from painful insights interprets her reaction from the present situation. According to the participant, anger as a defensive reaction is activated when a person is still not ripe for inner changes. Other participants also mention this motive of pretations, a reflection of contradictions or confrontation. But we can also see that clients are able not just to recollect these situations, but also to distance themselves from them and to reflect on the importance of such experiences in a broader context. The quotations show the inner process of a gradual integration of knowledge and descent to deeper and more authentic emotional experiences. 4.2.2. Aggression as a reaction to endangered boundaries Aggression in psychotherapy may be triggere session, disregard of time limits. Although such cases are not frequent in psychotherapy stories, usually clients react aggressively to these objective circumstances. Also, we can notice that anger in such situations very often goes together with other emotions, feelings of being abandoned, forgotten. So we can guess that aggression here might be linked not just with defending the borders, but also with self-protection from negative, painful emotions. All these motives can be detected in the quotation of the participant K.: me. I remember one situation, when I came and it was 6 p.m., the time we had agreed upon with her. Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed and I was still waiting for her. Then I felt anxious: maybe something had happened, what all this means? And, of course, I had fantasies that the she forgot me, left me, that she did not need me anymore. I -disclosure, -disclosure, which means a personal boundaries and cause an aggressive reaction. We would like to illustrate such a situation with an excerpt ad a feeling that she trespassed the borders when she spoke about herself, what I actually did not want to know. I did not need that. I just needed a mirror, but not some kind of advisor or teacher. In those moments she seemed to be steeling my time by telling me things which actually were not interesting, nor important or beneficial to me. It did not comfort or console me, but made me angry. I needed to feel that I am important, that she hears what I am saying, what I care for. I needed listening and attention, not f relationship selfdisclosure of the therapist and unmet expectations of the client. On the one hand, self-disclosure is treated by the the act of selfcare.

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4.2.3. Aggression as a reaction to unmet expectations The analysis of data shows the motives of aggression in therapy to be closely related to unmet expectations of the client regarding the therapist. Aggression is triggered in the situations when the expectations of support, admiration, attention or mirroring are unmet. Here, we would like to give a quotation of participant L.: beginning of therapy, I had always a feeling that the therapist did not understand me, did not hear me really. teaching me and instructing how to live. She did not hear my scream for help. She was tain characteristics of the relationship e causes a conscious experience of aggression in the form of anger. 5. Discussion Although for a long time aggression was defined as an act or motive to harm another person, oneself or an object, such a conception is not enough to elucidate the versatility of the possible motives of aggression. As we see, aggression can be provoked by having various motives. We can speak of aggression in several aspects and to emphasize its individual, subjective level or to see it in a broader context of interpersonal relationships. Aggressive reactions are closely related to human motivation and basic needs. Aggression draws attention to the frustration of basic needs (physiological, safety, love, respect) and pushes a person towards the realization, fulfillment. As the quantitative and qualitative parts of the study show, this motive of self-defense and selfpreservation is activated in the face of a physiological or psychological threat. Frustration of physiological needs, feelings of insecurity, unfulfilled wish to be loved, supported, mirrored, admired, respected go hand in hand with sive reactions are masterfully masked, ignored or directed towards oneself. Actually, when properly tamed, aggression, triggered by the frustration of needs, can give essential energy enough to fulfill these needs and not just to defend oneself. Finally, as some cases show, obstacles to self-realization and growth. Furthermore, we can treat aggression and its motives also in the context of interpersonal field and to grasp its role in the regulation of relationships. Here, aggression becomes a tool for regulating the distance to secure attachment and intimacy as well as to warrant sufficient space, separateness and individuality, to maintain the balance of power between the individuals. This aspect of aggression is active also in psychotherapeutic -disclosure. Thus, we can see that aggression is subjectively perceived and explained by participants as a reaction to unfulfilled needs, to border violations, as a tool of border delineation and self-assertion. Linking these results to the theory of human motivation, we can hypothesize aggressive reactions to be caused by the frustration and push towards the realization of deficiency needs. Moreover, aggression can be treated as a motivator of change, growth and of expanding the borders. References Austin, S. (2005). ost-jungian exploration of self-hatred, love and agency. London: Routledge. Blanchette, K., & Brawn, S.L. (2006). The assessment and treatment of women offender: An integrative perspective. West Sussex, UK: John Willey & Sons. Boyatzis, R. (2009). Transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Campbell, A. (1993). Out of control: men, women and aggression. Glasgow: Pandora. Chersonskij, B. G. (2003). Metod piktogram v psichodiagnostike. Sankt-Peterburg: Rec. Jack, D. C. (1999). Behind the mask: D . London: Harvard University Press. Kast, V. (2003). Abschied von der Opferroll. Das eigen Leben leben. Freiburg: Herder.


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